3. The Council elected three Vice-Chairmen for its session: Rudolf de Pourtalès (Switzerland), Bashir El Mabrouk Said (Libya) and Gerard Phirinyane Khojane (Lesotho).

4. The Council elected Yousef Ali Mahmoud Hamdi (Egypt) as Chairman of the Drafting Committee with the following membership: Argentina, Australia, Egypt, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Japan, 4 Madagascar, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain and United States of America.

5. The Director-General, after welcoming Council members, drew their attention to the difficult world economic and food and agriculture situation which was characterized by the fall in cereal production, the Third World indebtedness, the downward trend in real prices of raw materials, and the series of natural disasters affecting world agriculture, chief among them locust infestations.

6. The Director-General underlined the cash flow problems of the Organization, caused by the large arrears and delays in payment of assessed contributions. He catalogued the serious damages done to its programmes and activities at a time when demands for the Organization’s services were never greater.. He briefed the Council on the on-going review of certain aspects of the work of the Organization, and informed the members of the various activities undertaken by the Organization since the last session of the Council.

7. The Director-General stressed the need for FAO appropriate participation in the process of economic adjustments recommended by the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

8. The Director-General expressed his gratitude to the host country for its generosity and for the recent authorization for the construction of new buildings at Headquarters.

9. The Director-General ended by renewing his call to the Council for amicable and concerted action to address the problems in the food and agriculture sector in an atmosphere of harmony and goodwill.

10. The full text of the Director-General’s statement is given in Appendix D to this report.